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Photographers who duped customers skip island
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Posted on May 28 2019
Two photographers have reportedly skipped the island after allegedly duping several customers.
Roy Jacinto and Ivan Lanuza, former photographers with Island Image and Motion CNMI, have allegedly fled the island.
Island Image and Motion CNMI owner Jojo Alepuyo clarified yesterday that projects that were spearheaded by Jacinto and his assistant, Lanuza, past March 24, 2019, are not covered by his company because the two were fired after Alepuyo discovered that Jacinto was using his business to scam customers.
“If [the project] was still under my company that I knew about, then yes, those projects prior to March 24, those are the ones I’ve taken cared of already but, as of now, the rest are out of my hands and the most I can do is put this out there to be wary of all these production companies, just to be safe,” he said.
Alepuyo said yesterday that Jacinto joined his team in October 2018 after Chelu Photos let him go.
A few months later, around January and February, customers started following up on photos from projects that Alepuyo said he was not aware of.
“He joined my business in October. It was good up until December [when] he started acting shady, then come January and February, clients were coming up to me and asking for photos, like when are they going to be delivered. …When I cross-checked with our group schedule, it was not there, it was not logged in, so that led me to believe he was doing side business and side transactions without me knowing [about it],” he said.
After firing Jacinto, Alepuyo discovered that there were projects assigned to Jacinto that date back to January that were not even completed.
He described Lanuza as just an assistant to Jacinto and wasn’t officially employed with Island Image and Motion CNMI.
Alepuyo said an official police report has since been filed and police are now looking into it.
Unfortunately, Alepuyo said that he received confirmation that both men are now in the Philippines.
